Archive - 2012 - News Article
January 12th
As the sun rose Thursday morning, the tremendous scale of the devastation became apparent.
A windy, narrow path called South Fork Road, in Icard off Old N.C. 10, was one of the hardest areas hit.
You had to pass through a police roadblock just to get access to the street.
Burke County sheriff’s officers said there were several reports of looting in the area the night before, when January tornadoes ripped through the region, injuring dozens, damaging nearly 60 homes and changing people’s lives.
Driving along South Fork, signs of the storm were virtually everywhere.
By
The Associated Press and The O-N-E reports
BRUSSELS — Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize says it is cutting almost 5,000 jobs in the United States as it closes underperforming stores.
Delhaize said Thursday that it is shutting down 113 Food Lion supermarkets, as well as seven Bloom and six Bottom Dollar Food stores within the next 30 days.
According to documents published online by Food Lion, the Hickory Bottom Dollar Food store on U.S. 70 will be converted to a Food Lion. No other Hickory Metro grocery stores owned by the company are affected. A Bottom Dollar Food store will be closed.
Severe weather swept through the Catawba Valley on Wednesday evening, and The Observer News Enterprise delivered information about storms and emergency warnings to online readers and Twitter followers throughout the event.
Get news updates on Twitter @TheONENews and visit www.observernewsonline.com often for breaking news information.
The National Weather Service confirmed Thursday that a tornado damaged dozens of homes and injured at least 15 people in western North Carolina.
The weather service's forecast office in Greer, S.C., said Thursday that investigators confirmed the tornado with winds of around 115 mph.
The storms struck in Rutherford and Burke counties late Wednesday afternoon as a cold front moved through the western Carolinas, meteorologist Neil Dixon with the weather service office in Greer, S.C., said.
January 11th
The following are arrests, citations and incidents recently reported in Catawba County:
Arrests
*Dearl Roy Steoart, 39, of 3618 Huie St. in Newton; hit and run, failure to stop; $100 bond
*Jennifer Lynn Reece, 21, of 2000 Terry St. in Conover; breaking and/or entering, felony larceny, possession of stolen goods; $1,000 bond
*Patricia Sue Tyger, 38, of 195 Riverview Acres Lane in Taylorsville; injury to real property, breaking or entering, felony larceny; $2,000 bond
Conover will look to approve a lease agreement and contract tonight related to the Manufacturing Solutions Center (MSC).
Conover City Council will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. tonight to consider approval of a lease agreement between the city and Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC), in addition to a contract with MSC.
MSC is currently located on CVCC’s East Campus. Employing about 36 full- and part-time workers, MSC works with companies around the world to develop and improve their products. Â
Bright minds like Derek Detweiler and Todd Lewis are just what Catawba County needs. At least that’s what area leaders and business pros are saying.
Detweiler and Lewis, both in their 30s, are code writers who founded Gopherwood Studios in 2008.
Using HTML5, they develop web games for PCs and smart phones, some of which have attracted the interest of Google in the U.S. and have even been picked up in Europe. That’s not bad for a couple of guys pumping out code in Detweiler’s basement.
A new law may make some paychecks smaller for hundreds of Catawba County educators, but teachers won't lose any money.
The N.C. General Assembly approved a law in summer 2011 that regulates when school systems are allowed to pay teachers and 10-month employees at the beginning of the school year. The law prohibits school systems from giving teachers a full month's paycheck at the end of August when teachers have not worked a full month. The law is set to take effect with the 2012-13 school year.
In the past, some school systems have prepaid teachers a full month's salary Aug. 31.
Severe storms rolled through the Greater Hickory area early Wednesday evening.
Storms brought hail, heavy wind and rain to Hickory and other western areas of Catawba County. Newton and other communities in central and eastern parts of the county received only heavy rain and some wind.
The National Weather Service (NWS) reported about 5:45 p.m. that a tornado touched down in northern Cleveland County and moved north toward Burke County. NWS issued a tornado warning for Catawba County that lasted until 6:45 p.m.
Boys at Fred T. Foard High School threatened a girl with a noose this week, and Catawba County Schools' leader says the school "messed up" in the way it handled the situation.
More details available in The O-N-E's Wednesday online edition: www.observernewsonline.com/content/foard-student-bullied-noose.
North Carolina is investing $5.3 million in Catawba County roads, including resurfacing projects in Newton, Conover, Claremont and Maiden. Find out which roads will get new paving in the Wednesday edition of The O-N-E.
